1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a board-to-board connector assembly, and particularly to a board-to-board connector assembly, which has low profile and which electrically, connects a PCB and a flexible circuit board to assure reliable signal transmission therebetween.
2. Related Art
A connector assembly, which is adapted to electrically connect with a PCB and a flexible circuit board, generally comprises a plug and a receptacle connector connected together. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,224,866, 5,639,248, 5,800,186, 6,036504, 6,036549, 6,296,524 and 6,729,890 disclose such a structure. This conventional structure, however, has some deficiencies as following:
Firstly, in the conventional connector assembly, terminals of the plug and terminals of the receptacle connector electrically connect with each other for signal transmission. At the same time the conductive terminals of the plug and the conductive terminals of the receptacle connector have to be soldered to the PCB and the flexible circuit board, respectively. The height of the connector assembly is equal to the sum of height of the plug and the receptacle connector, which hinders development of connector assembly with low profile.
Secondly, conducive terminals of the plug and conducive terminals of the receptacle connector contact each other side by side. That is, the plug and the receptacle connector mate with each other in the same direction as the direction of the conducive terminals thereof mating with each other. Thus the conducive terminals of the plug and the receptacle connector tend to contact unreliably. Additionally, the conducive terminals are apt to abrade, especially for the conductive terminals having a portion below a contact portion made of strips.